Fair Isle: Home of Fair Isle Sweaters
When someone speaks of fair isle sweaters your first impression may be the wrong one; fair isle is not the brand name of a sweater . . . at least not quite. Fair Isle is an island in the north of Scotland, located near Shetland, the home to a small number of islanders (somewhat less than 100 permanent residents) and more relevantly, Fair Isle is where genuine fair isle sweaters and other fair isle knitwear are made.
For hundreds of years, the economy of the little island was based mainly on the fine knitted goods produced by the islanders. Ships passing the island would stop and trade what merchandise they had for the beautifully patterned, beautifully crafted knitted hats, gloves and scarves made on Fair Isle. The Fair Islanders would also sell and trade their knitted garments on Shetland Isle as well as on nearby Orkney Isle. It was Fair Island, in fact, that started the burgeoning Shetland knitting industry.
In more recent years, when you hear about 'fair isle knitwear' you may not be hearing about the genuine article. "Fair isle" has become a generic name for the style of knitting and for the type of pattern created on Fair Isle; but this generic version of fair isle knitwear is not always a fair representation of the knitted goods that are actually produced on Fair Isle.
Genuine fair isle sweaters and other garments are distinctively designed and hand knitted. Originally, before other dyes were brought to the island, the knitted goods were produced by dying the yarn (yarn spun right there on the island) with blue, red, black and yellow dyes produced from island plants and lichen from tree trunks and rocks. In later years indigo (an Asian shrub) and madder (a European herb) were also available to make dyes.
The weather on Fair Isle, even in the summer, is very changeable but, despite that drawback, Fair Isle today is a successful tourist destination and has a reputation as a place where a tourist will receive a warm welcome. Several crofts (small farms) have rooms available for tourists who have come to see the fair isle knitters work their magic as well as to tour the lovely little island and see the isle's variety of wildlife, its lighthouses and its wind farms. Many tourists, however, come just to fill their suitcases with beautiful fair isle sweaters -- always a major export of Fair Isle.